As I am just trying to resettle myself after a trip to Japan, I wanted to post something else that just came out and was also dear to me. About a month ago, I was approached by a friend to put Evie into a short commercial for the company Yoobi. If you aren’t familiar, they make bright and fun school supplies, and sold at Target. Their position is a one for one model; by purchasing their products, they give supplies to schools in need all around America. Growing up, I remember having one set of markers that are to last me the whole year or even trying to use the last bit of crayon with just my fingertips to be able to create what I wanted. As a mother, I have been fortunate to be able to provide my daughter with things she needs to create, and see that her […]

There’s moments where I wake up to the reality, “Wait, when did we become a family of traveling salesmen?” I don’t know that we planned for it or knew what was involved when we signed on, but it’s become clear this year and last year was a significant change in our lifestyle because of our side business. If you are just tuning in, my husband Peabe has found a creative outlet in a side business of making pins and patches. You can purchase from the website www.pea-be.com SneakerCon May 2016 It has since grown to have a loyal following and super cool fans. We ship and stock from our living room where we drink wine and watch Netflix as we fill orders. I have to say that it’s been an amazing experience to share with him and my daughter and so fulfilling to see something grow from just […]

My mother’s day compilation… because I love this girl and I’ve been pretty blessed to have so many amazing experiences with her. She is my world, and I’m so happy to be her “Nanay”. Happy mother’s day to all those mamas out there.

It has been a tough couple months, leaving me a little angsty and questioning my own voice on matters and I know that isn’t conducive to having a blog. The anxiety of the days that turn into weeks of silence is stressful, turning what used to be a project that I loved doing into a chore. Why do I have this need to power off when things get tough, and how does one come back from that? I imagine I am not the only one who suffers from this and I imagine there’s things well in my control that attribute to it, so I have come to try to make sense of this silence, and try write about it. Of course, everyone has rough times that are beyond their control. These past couple months have brought unplanned deaths and loss, moves, political changes, relationship changes within my own affiliations both […]

Prior to taking our Scandinavian vacation, I knew that I wanted to spend some time really getting to know the culture of the places. Of course all the major cities have lots to offer, but escaping into the less traveled areas is a for sure way to get one-on-one and experience a real dose of what the customs and people are really like in a country. On top of that, one of the major things on my list of things that I wanted to do in Scandinavia was go see the Northern Lights. I have seen it once before in Alaska, but I wanted to show my husband, Peabe, and my daughter, Evie, how amazing it looked in person. I once read an article about how climate change may effect the lights and wanted to be sure that they also had that experience in their lifetime. Lastly, I love getting […]

It’s a tough time to celebrate Thanksgiving, for sure. As we sit with our families over a meal, a lot of bad things are going on in this world. Yes, I am thankful that we aren’t sitting front lines to terrible atrocities happening right now. As I’m looking back on a pretty tumultuous year for me and my family, I know a lot of great things happened this year too. Yes, I am thankful for all the blessings we all have had. As I worry for my daughter growing up in this world everyday, I know she’s been learning and growing with a firm sense of self and wonder. Yes, I am grateful that she is such a rad kid. As I know I have been dealing with a lot of personal highs and lows this year. As I loose friends and learn to cope with a new loneliness, I […]

Dearest family and friends; I have been processing my thoughts around this election and current state of the country… I am not going to tell you who and what you should vote for, as I know from the results there are more than half of the country (including some of my own family and friends) remained complacent or had been part of a silent majority. I am not here to educate you, I am not here to represent some marginalized group, and I am not here to judge you on your decision. I only ask that you, as my circle, hear me out. In return, I promise now that if you need someone to hear you out, you should know I am hear for ya. This election has not tested my friendships, as I know we all have a right to our opinion. This president doesn’t scare me, but the […]

The month of October started off really testing myself on the mountains of the Lost Coast trail, and ended up watching my daughter really test herself on her longest hike to date (4.5 miles) on Angel Island and also climbing the large boulders of Yosemite’s Mirror Lake Trail. Of course I am a proud mama practically all the time, but something about her taking on these hikes makes me really glow. There’s a lot that I’ve learned in my life through being out in nature, and I don’t think I understood it’s impact until later in life. My parents taught me a lot of self-sufficiency being out fishing or camping. I would come back from a a day spent catching on the river and wanting to immediately go out to the garden in the back to dig up some worms to bring back to the river the next weekend and […]

It’s 7:45 am right now and I still haven’t slept. Even though I feel like I’ve ran around town all day with a doctor appointment, a hair appointment, picking up medicine for Evie, and running lots of last minute errands today, I still have only met 50% of my Fitbit goal. Even though I’ve spent the last 10 hours working on my laptop in the same seat of the sofa, I feel like I haven’t even made a dent in the work still yet to do. Even though I have prepared some things for my parent’s arrival today, I will still need to clean the apartment top to bottom today. By the time you are reading this, I will be in Scandinavia enjoying some vacation time. At this point, the craziness before the vacation, it’s hard to know if I am coming of going. In actuality, I will probably be […]

Ever since living here in California, I had only visited Yosemite in the springtime. There’s something so fresh and clean about springtime there, with the falls gushing with water, crisp cold air, and sometimes a bit of snow on the ground. We usually book a yurt with Yosemite Lakes Campground, just outside the park, so we’ve been a little spoiled by heated structures to relax in white we are there. Going in the off-season also offers us a pretty open park, away from crowds and traffic, where we can really feel like we’ve escaped. This year, the campground was pretty booked and had availability in October. With all the other things we had planned this month, it was a little inconvenient, but we booked it anyway and had hoped we could make it work. The group of friends we go with changes slightly most years, and this time was no […]

Who?

Thank you for joining me on Ever Winding Road.
I am a mother and wife with a love of design, the outdoors, traveling, and eating. I'm also a first time blogger and exploring a new creative outlet here on this blog, so it is a work in progress. My husband and I have made our way out west to Oakland, California after leaving Chicago, Illinois 8 years ago, but know the adventures never end...